Kolkata: UCO Bank has announced a net profit at Rs 243.40 crore for the first half of the recent fiscal (2007). The company has registered a growth of 50.03 percent compared to same period last year.

During the first half, the bank’s total business stood at Rs 1,17,994 crore with an increase of 20.07 percent.

In order to back up the fund expansion plans in the coming year (2008), the bank has planned to raise Rs 100 crore through a follow-on public offering (FPO) of its shares by the end of the financial year.

S K Goel, bank’s Chairman and Managing Director said, “We have applied to the government to raise Rs 100 crore as tier-I capital and expect the approval in a month’s time.”

Mr. Goel said that once its capital recast plan was approved by the administration, it would hit the capital market in the fourth quarter of the existing fiscal.

As a part of a capital restructuring plan, UCO bank would be altering 300 crore equity shares into preference shares, and the interest rate on the preference assignation has been fixed at 7.5 per cent. In the post-FPO situation, the government holding would fall to 54.50 per cent from the current 76 per cent.

Interestingly, the leading public sector bank, State Bank of India, is also going for an FPO in the same period, but the chairman did not foresee any negative effect on the Uco Bank’s offers.

“Possibly it would work in our favour, primarily because of the prevailing market sentiment at that moment,” he added.

In the first half of FY08, the bank’s overall deposits and advances showed growth of 22.23 per cent and 17.02 per cent correspondingly compared with the numbers in the corresponding period last year.